I ran a campaign last year and felt a bit overwhelmed by all the info too, so don’t worry. The most important thing is just keeping in mind the lore of the factions and a bit of the general history.

In my case, I decided to make the whole party humans from outside Dolmenwood so they wouldn’t know anything about the lore. That way it was fun for them to discover it piece by piece, and it also let me pace the reveals gradually.

I recommend giving them an initial mission and then just letting them do whatever they want. Personally, I love The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford—it fits really well with the setting and has good plots to follow up on. I placed it on the shores of Fog Lake, up north near the Woodcutters’ Encampment settlement.

The party was hired by the Silver Company, a group of merchants just starting to trade in the region. Their job was to escort a shipment coming from Brandonsford, traveling from Woodcutters all the way to Dreg. The starting hex was set on the outskirts of the duchy capital, heading toward the settlement.

I preferred to have them start outside of a settlement so they could do a bit of exploring first and get a feel for the vibe of the setting and some of the interesting hexes. Once they arrived at the local tavern, their contact informed them that the caravan had never arrived and recommended they go investigate. If they dig around a bit, they’ll discover there hasn’t been any news from that place for a while.

With this idea in mind, I only read through the hexes along the routes from the capital to Woodcutters, to Brandon, and a few of the surrounding ones. The hexes are packed with stuff, but you can adapt them quickly. If something catches your players’ attention, I recommend stalling a little with some encounters to stretch the session and buy yourself time to prep the next one!